If It’s a Sampras Tantrum, It’s Not a Bad Fit

A fit of Pete isn’t such a bad thing. We saw Pete Sampras’ please-drop-dead glare at chair umpire Lars Graff at the ATP Championship at Cincinnati last Sunday. And we read his lips when he expressed his opinion of Graff’s controversial overrule on match point, giving the match and tournament title to Patrick Rafter.

So, what in the name of John McEnroe did Sampras say?

We better not go there. But it was McEnroe-lite, perhaps a third-degree tantrum on the Mac attack scale. Later, Sampras joked about how McEnroe would have treated the chair umpire.

“You would have had to call the ambulance,” Sampras said.

This certainly is not a call for Sampras to turn into McEnroe or Jimmy Connors. But, at least for one day, it brought men’s tennis back on the radar screen this summer. (Really, how fascinating was the two-week reign of Marcelo Rios at No. 1, a period in which he actually won one match?)

Sampras has been unfairly criticized as boring and colorless. That was hardly the case when he showed plenty of emotion and fire against Tim Henman in the semifinals at Wimbledon.

Given a proper foil, a potential rival, Sampras can get fiery and demonstrative. Andre Agassi once filled that role and he may again. Henman is showing signs of getting there. And Sampras certainly seems to take Rafter quite seriously, even though he has lost to him once in nine matches.

“You know, you guys think I’m some sort of robot out there,” Sampras said. “That I feel nothing. But it’s certainly not the case. No, I’m not going to regret it [the outburst]. I mean, I felt good after I did it. You know, I felt like, OK, I made my point, released a little steam.”

Sampras rarely shows that kind of anger. But a linesperson had called Rafter’s serve out and was overruled by Graff. He recalled not shaking the chair umpire’s hand one other time--in Australia--and it was also Graff.

“I really just couldn’t believe he did it,” Sampras said. “I just was really upset. I’m hardly ever like that. It just tells you how bad I thought his decision was.”

Rafter was bothered the match ended on a sour note.

“It rarely happens at all,” he said of Sampras’ outburst. “As I said, it’s a little bit disappointing because it took a bit of a spark away from the end, I think. . . . It’s my occasion, it’s my time. I want to enjoy it. I wasn’t quite sure if he was going to come up and shake my hand.”

Sampras will move back to No. 1 when the latest ATP rankings are released Monday. Rafter is the defending U.S. Open champion, and certainly the Cincinnati final will be a fresh memory should Rafter and Sampras meet in New York. Rafter also won the event in Toronto the week before Cincinnati.

“You know, playing Patrick is a little bit like playing [Stefan] Edberg,” Sampras said. “He’s got the good kick serve. We play so similar. We both play real attacking tennis. Attacking players have always given me trouble.”

And surely Rafter will remember Sampras’ assessment--albeit a joking one--of the difference between himself and Rafter.

“Ten Grand Slams,” he said.

MORE RAFTER

Rafter thought everyone else was taking his loss to Justin Gimelstob last month at UCLA a little too seriously. As it turned out, he was right.

“Everyone loses. You have got to learn to accept those things,” Rafter said. “I think when you can learn to accept losses in bad situations, it makes better times even better. Sure, you are a little bit disappointed, but I think people lose reality a little bit.”

Rafter, who will be playing this week at the Hamlet Cup on Long Island, is dealing with his nerves better in the hours leading up to tournament finals.

“All I know is I have been sleeping better before the finals than what I used to,” he said. “I don’t know why it has all of a sudden turned around because the last two [finals] have been with two guys I haven’t really beaten at all, against [Richard] Krajicek and Sampras.

“And I have come out and won the the final day. I don’t know, must be something in the stars going my way.”

MUSICAL CHAIRS

Maybe Rios should think about picking up the phone and calling his former coach, Larry Stefanki.

Stefanki helped Rios reach the top spot in the world earlier this year, and again in August. Since parting ways, Rios has won one match in two events, beating wild card Bob Bryan at Indianapolis. He then lost to Byron Black in the next round. The previous week, Daniel Vacek defeated Rios at Cincinnati.

Brit Greg Rusedski has surfaced at Indianapolis with a new coach, Sven Gronveld, who once worked with Mary Pierce and Michael Stich. Rusedski, who has been out of action since Wimbledon with an ankle injury, had been dumped by Tony Pickard in an acrimonious and public split.

Jonas Bjorkman also ended his partnership with his coach, Fredrik Rosengren, after Wimbledon. Bjorkman is struggling with his confidence.

“I actually don’t care if I win or lose,” he said at Indianapolis.

That statement, no surprise, was after a loss.

COURT QUOTES

* “Be lucky, guess the corner, close your eyes and hope there’s a God. You have to be a little religious to break his serve,” said Magnus Larsson of Sweden, on returning against Sampras.

* “Unless they are like me,” onetime teen prodigy Jennifer Capriati told the Hartford Courant, predicting long careers for the likes of Martina Hingis, Venus Williams and Anna Kournikova.